Over the weekend I came across an interesting article in the Australian Veterinary Journal whilst I was having a look at some recent injury prevention publications in Australia. Last month’s\u00a0issue of the journal contained an article summarising cattle-specific injuries reported in the Health Risks of Australian Veterinarians Survey (HRAV). Of the 2188 serious injuries reported by the 1397 participants, 30% involved cattle. Most of the injuries were incurred in the stock yards\/handling yards (82%) and\u00a0involved procedural activities such as pregnanacy testing. Understandably pregnancy testing-associated injuries were caused by\u00a0kicks (41%) or being crushed or pushed against\u00a0(35%), and injuries to upper limbs, the trunk, and\u00a0lower limbs ranged from\u00a0bruising and\u00a0open wounds\u00a0to dislocations and fractures.<\/p>\n
The Authors state that\u00a0“62% <\/em>(of the injured veterinarians) also reported the use of some safety precautions at the time of injury<\/em>: 38% of overall injuries and 43% of injuries that were <\/em>incurred while undertaking obstetric activities occurred during the <\/em>use of restricting enclosures such as cattle crushes. A number of veterinarians <\/em>commented on the inadequacy or poor condition of the <\/em>crush being used at the time of injury.” <\/em><\/p>\n This suggests that not only should veterinarians be aware of the risk-minimising techniques for handling large animals such as cows, farmers and other cattle producers need to be made aware of the risks associated with inadequate and\/or poorly maintained equipment such as cattle crushes.<\/p>\n